I must respond to the mischief making of Adrian Gregson on behalf of his City Labour Group.
They say the sums don't add up and they say it will cost £500,000 a year but then they moan that they haven't seen the figures.
The £500,000 is the cost if the council took out 100% borrowing for the project, it was written by the council to aid a simple cost of capital comparison between the various options. It is not the taxpayer subsidy.
They know proceeds from Sansome will reduce the borrowings, they know Sport England are considering a grant which will reduce the borrowings and they know council has healthy capital receipts in the bank which could also reduce the borrowings.
They also know that approximately £2,000,000 of the borrowings are to refurbish Perdiswell Leisure Centre and this part has to be on a 25 year repayment not 40 years.
The 6 lane pool and leisure centre they advocate would cost £9,243,000 whereas the 8 lane pool and leisure centre would cost £10,452,000. The extra £1,209,000 buys us a 33% bigger pool. They know Worcester is a becoming a bigger city so this additional cost of getting a bigger pool seems good value. They forget the council have received £3,000,000 for Orchard House since they proposed the 6 lane pool. The pool will last until 2050 so its seems nonsense to build the same sized pool that the council built in 1970.
It saddens me that such mischief making has political undercurrents.
Neil Monkhouse
Worcester
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